Cookie Policy
Last updated August 30, 2026
Cookies are small files a site stores in your browser. This page explains which ones thebackyardvault.com uses and how to control them. It sits alongside our Privacy Policy.
Categories we use
Strictly necessary
These make the site function and cannot be switched off from here. They include the cookies WooCommerce sets to remember what is in your cart and to keep you signed in through checkout and downloads, the session cookie WordPress sets if you log in, and cookies used by our caching layer to serve the correct version of a page.
Functional
These remember preferences so the site behaves sensibly on your next visit, such as dismissing a notice. Losing them is an inconvenience, not a breakage.
Affiliate tracking
We work with affiliate networks, currently including Impact, so that a retailer can tell that a purchase came from a link on this site and pay us the commission described in our Affiliate Disclosure. These set a cookie recording that you followed one of our links and when. They are used to attribute a sale, not to profile you, and they cost you nothing.
Analytics and conversion measurement
These help us understand which pages, calculators and products are actually useful, and whether a link or campaign worked. We use them in aggregate. We are not building an advertising profile of you.
We use Google Analytics 4, which sets cookies named _ga and _ga_ followed by a stream identifier. These record a randomly generated identifier for your browser, the pages you visit on this site, roughly where in the world you are, and how you arrived. They do not record your name, your email address or anything you type into our calculators, and the figures we look at are totals across all visitors rather than individual sessions. Google processes this data as described in its own privacy policy, and its use of the data it collects is governed by Google’s terms rather than ours.
If you would rather not be counted, any of these work: block cookies for this site in your browser, use a private window, install Google’s official opt out add on for your browser, or use a content blocker, most of which block this by default. Nothing on this site breaks if you do. The calculators are all client side and keep working exactly the same.
Browser storage used by our planning tools
Two of our free tools keep your work in your own browser using local storage, which is a store the site can read on your device but nothing is sent to us or to anyone else. The Native Plant Matcher saves the plant shortlist you build, and the Rug and Furniture Fit Planner saves the patio layout you draw, so both are still there when you come back. Neither is a cookie, neither is used for tracking or advertising, and both are tied to the one browser on the one device. Each tool has a button that clears its own saved data, and clearing site data in your browser settings removes it as well. If your browser blocks storage, which private windows sometimes do, the tools say so and simply work for that visit.
Third parties
Some cookies are set by the services we rely on rather than by us directly, including our ecommerce platform, our payment processor at checkout, and our email platform when you follow a link from one of our emails. Embedded content from another site, such as a video, can set its own cookies under that provider’s policy.
How to control cookies
- Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies in its settings, and offers a private browsing mode.
- Blocking strictly necessary cookies will break the cart, checkout and downloads.
- Most browsers support a Global Privacy Control signal, which we honour where it applies.
Changes
As we add tools to the site this list will change. The date above tells you when it was last reviewed. Questions: mikekoltas@gmail.com.